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December Curriculum Update

After Thanksgiving, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades started new units in science class. 6th and 7th have been learning about the tiny units that make up all living things: cells! After we got some perspective about the sizes of things (atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs...), we learned about the many parts of cells (organelles). We'll spend next week making our own Cell Cities!
Each student will make a city that carries out all of the jobs that our cell organelles perform.

8th grade is working on an electricity unit. We've seen the effects of static electricity, and now we're moving on to current electricity. Students are working in pairs to complete their electricity challenges. So far, they've succeeded in lighting a bulb with only a wire and a battery (not as easy as it sounds!); next week each team will explore circuits and invent a device that can tell if a material is a conductor or nonconductor.

After the holiday break, we'll be learning about how materials move in and out of cells. Experiments will involve eggs, potatoes, vinegar, salt water, food coloring, and corn syrup. No, we won't be eating them! We'll also focus on the important processes that happen in our cells (cellular respiration) and in plant cells (photosynthesis).

The Microbe Investigators did an excellent job!

The science room was bustling on Friday as the Microbe Investigators presented their experiments to the public! The 7th and 8th grades hosted two 1st grade classes, the 6th grade, and many parents. The Investigators taught our visitors about microbes and graciously answered questions. One investigative team even brought microbe-produced food to attract visitors to their poster (it worked!).

Photos from the Microbe Exhibit

REMINDER!

I just want to remind everyone that on Thursday mornings, I lead a Science Extra Help session before school. Students are welcome from 8:00-8:30 (in the science room). More students tend to come just before a test or project due date, but middle schoolers can join me any Thursday as long as they tell me the day before that they'll be coming.

6th Grade Recycling Ambassadors

For the past three weeks, the Recycling Ambassadors have been learning about where our waste goes. We visited the Windham Solid Waste Management Recycling Facility to follow the journey of items in our recycling bins. In fact, while we were on a tour of the facility, a truckload of recyclables from Guilford was dumped right in front of us! We got to see what happens in the busy facility and find out where our glass, plastic, paper, and cardboard ends up. And, in case you were wondering, the 6th grade class, Mrs. Davis, and 2 chaperones weigh 2,581 pounds! (We all got on the scale together.)
We've talked about reasons that people recycle as well as what can and cannot be recycled in Guilford. In teams of 3-4, students created, rehearsed, and presented lessons to grades K-5 in our school. Different teams made Powerpoint presentations, posters, skits, and interactive games to play with the younger students. It was very exciting to have teams come back to our science room feeling so excited and proud of how well their presentations went. In fact, teachers have been asking me if we can come back to work with them throughout the year. The Recycling Ambassadors have been working hard. As this unit draws to a close, we'll be moving on to do more hands-on scientific investigations.

Microbe Investigations

The 7th and 8th grades have been studying microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, yeast, mold...). At this point in our unit, all students are undertaking investigations that they designed. The Microbe Investigators came up with their own experimental questions and made a plan to answer them. These are some of the questions currently being investigated:

• Where are there more microbes-- inside or outside?
• Does temperature affect the growth of microbes?
• Which has more microbes- blue cheese, garlic cheddar, or milk?
• Does the boys' or girls' bathroom have more bacteria?
• Does using hand sanitizer or washing with soap and water eliminate more microbes?
  

Want to know the answers to these questions, and more? We'll be sharing our results at the Microbe Exhibit on November 20th.

The 8th grade has experienced mini-lessons with three guest teachers: Mr. Wood, Mr. Patno, and Mr. Mizrahi. Other 8th graders have been asking for this opportunity, and in the future we'll be learning from Miss Crowder and Mr. McPhail...and possibly others!

Junior Iron Chef Competition

6th Grade's Farm to School Program had very exciting Wednesday last week!

The Challenge: Be the cooking team to make the most delicious apple crisp using local apples
The Prize: Our panel of judges will select the most scrumptious apple crisp. The winning recipe will be made by 6th grade for the entire middle school to enjoy next week!
The Event: Imagine this scene in the science room...

• Teams of 3 are eagerly waiting at their prep tables; bowls, peelers, cutting boards, secret ingredient lists in front of them. The team names alone are enough to make your mouth water--Apple Crispies, The Crispy Cookers, Smashing Apples, Sweet Sugar Savers, The BFGs, and Crisp Crunchers.
  
• Ms. Kramer and Mrs. Davis announce ground rules and the teams take off!
• Teams send one member for ingredients and begin the frantic preparations: Flour is flying, apple peels are proliferating, salt is sprinkling! The Iron Chefs are working together and delegating tasks. Some chefs are carefully mixing their crumb topping; others are washing measuring cups before adding the next ingredient.
  
• When the prep time comes to a close, all 6 crisps are lined up on a baking pan and baked to perfection.
  
• Later in the day, the entries are revealed to the judges. The judges enjoy a spoonful of each crisp, cleansing their palates between tastings, and noting their comments on the judging sheet.
• The votes are tallied...though all crisps are delicious delights, the winner is the crisp with the homemade caramel drizzled on top.
  
• All Junior Iron Chefs get to eat the fruits of their labor :)
• 

Wondering what your child has been doing in science class?

...Find out by coming to our MICROBE EXHIBIT, a science fair gallery hosted by 7th and 8th grades.

MICROBE EXHIBIT
FRIDAY, NOV. 20
10:00-11:30 am
in the science room

The Microbe Investigators will have poster displays and will be happy to answer your questions about the tiny critters that live on us and all around us. You are welcome to stop in for as long as your schedule allows. (Posters will be displayed for the morning. 7th grade will host from 10:00-10:45 and 8th grade will host from 10:50-11:30.) Please email me at Rachel_Davis@wsesu.org if you plan to attend.

Tips for Parents

The Middle School had our first round of parent/teacher conferences on Thursday and we'll be continuing on Monday. I found this article that I wanted to share with parents who are wondering how they can help their child be successful. It's from the National Middle School Association (www.nmsa.org).

Tips For Parents

The first tip is thinking ahead... One of our best tools as parents is being prepared. As your son or daughter gets to the middle school years, get ready for at least occasional conflicts. Think through what is truly important to you. Is the youngster's hairstyle as important as homework? Isn't curfew more of a concern than crabbiness? Obviously, dawdling is a lot easier to accept than drugs. As these give-and-take situations start, know ahead of time what areas you are willing to negotiate and what areas are absolutes.

Break down big chores into small parts. Sometimes young people feel overwhelmed by tasks, especially those they've let go for a long time. A disastrous bedroom, twenty-three overdue math assignments, a long-term project that's "suddenly" due in a few days (or hours!);all of these cause the preadolescent to choose to give up rather than get started.

Help your child by setting up smaller goals: clean off your bed; get five assignments done tonight; assemble the materials for the project. Preadolescents have trouble structuring tasks so that they are more approachable. In an even and off-hand way, we can help them in this.

Encourage your middle schooler to keep a daily list (weekly is too much) with a few things on it to be done that day. It may be necessary to assign a specific time to each task. When the task is completed, draw a line through it to show accomplishment.

Don't hesitate to remind your middle schooler about appointments and due dates. Try to think ahead about materials required for a project (unless you look forward to late-evening visits to K-Mart). This will not last forever. When this same child was learning to walk, we held his or her hands and made the path smooth. Now he or she is learning to take on a tremendous assortment of life-tasks and changes; hand-holding (but not the firm, physical grip previously necessary) is needed for about a year or so as your middle schooler gets started on the road to being a responsible adult.

Be willing to listen — but don't poke or pry. Kids this age value independence and often seem secretive. Keeping to themselves is part of the separateness they are trying to create. Let them know you'd love to help them, but don't push them into a defensive position.

If your child is in the midst of a longtime friendship that is falling apart, the best thing you can do is stand by and be a good listener. It is devastating for us to see our children hurting, but taking sides or intervening is not appropriate, nor will it help. Preadolescents do survive these hurts, especially if they know we are there to listen to their pain.

Friends are people who accept us as we are. They listen, they don't needlessly criticize, they back us up when we're right and pick us up when we're down. Be a friend to your middle schooler; some days kids feel you're the only one they have.

All friendships have ups and downs. Children need to learn that being "best friends" isn't always smooth sailing. People have differences of opinion and even get angry, but they still care for each other. This is what's going on when we get involved in those "I-hate-her-she-is-so-stuck-up-and-how-could-she-do-this-to-me" conversations. As parents we must help our kids see that one problem doesn't ruin a relationship, but stubbornness might. Middle schoolers have a lot of spats and falling outs, but often the friends are back together again in a short time.

When reprimanding, deal only with the precise problem, don't bring in other issues. "The trash is still here, and I want it out, now," is better than, "You are so lazy! I told you to take that trash out two hours ago and it's still here! You'd live in a pigsty, wouldn't you? Well, you aren't the only one in this house, you know..."

If the issue is minor, keep things light. The shoes on the floor, the wet towel on the bed, the carton left open; these are maddening, perhaps, but not earth-shattering. Call attention to them in a humorous way, so your middle-schooler knows you want action but you aren't being punitive. "Either the cat's smarter than I thought or you left the milk carton open on the counter. One of you please put it back before it spoils."

Don't use power unless it's urgent. Parents have the ultimate power, and kids know it. We don't have to "prove" it to them at every turn. Save your strength for those really important issues you've decided are non-negotiable. Eventually kids are going to possess power of their own, and we want them to be able to use it wisely.

Curriculum update, Sept 20

We've had a busy start in middle school science! After we got to know our classroom community and procedures, we moved on to a pressing matter: how to identify poison ivy. We're going to spend time working on and learning on the Nature Trail this year and don't want While the 6th grade drew scientific illustrations of Toxicodendron radicans, the 7th and 8th grades came up with solutions to this itchy problem. Then the students presented their solutions (Pull it out! Avoid it! Spray it with herbicide!) and debated the pro's and con's of these proposals.
Last week (Sept. 14-18), we focused on the question, "What is Life?" and learned about the Six Characteristics of Living Things. Students in all classes generated questions about life on Earth, many of which we'll be revisiting as this year of LIFE SCIENCE progresses.
This week (Sept. 21-25), we'll begin to learn about the vast biodiversity that exists on Earth. We'll come up with our own ways of classifying items and learn about the classification systems that scientists have developed. Next week we have two guest speakers coming to our classroom-- Mary Lou Forward will share her own experiences with biodiversity in Madagascar, and Jesse Palmer will do trail work with us and discuss his upcoming trip to Antarctica. 7th and 8th graders met Jesse last year before he left for the South Pole, and he told me he's looking forward to seeing them again!

Contact Information

Guilford Central School
374 School Road
Guilford, VT 05301

phone: (802) 254-2271

If you'd like to reach Mrs. Davis, call the school and Mrs. Kerber will connect you to my room. I am at school from 8:00-12:30 every weekday. However, I am teaching classes for most of that time, so the best time to speak directly to me is 8:00-8:45 am. Of course, you may leave a message anytime and I will call you back. Another way to reach me is by email: rachel_davis@wsesu.org
I check this email daily.

Welcome to the science blog!

Hello Guilford students, parents, and anyone else who is interested in the Guilford Middle School Science program! I'm starting this blog as a place to give you updates on what we're doing inside and out of the classroom. Here's what you will (eventually) find on this site:

• contact information for Mrs. Davis
• links to science websites
• science news (current events)
• important reminders about upcoming projects and due dates
• graphic organizers and handouts from class

I'm looking forward to seeing the Guilford middle schoolers soon!